In the Martyrology of Donegal, just published by the Irish Archæological and Celtic Society, we find the following notice of the Author of this prayer on the 20th of February, the 10th of the Kalends of March:
"Colga, Mac Ua Duinechda,[1] i.e. Lector of Cluan-mac-nois. It was he that composed the kind of prayer, called the Suꞃαb Cꞃαḃαιḋ.[2] It was to him Paul the Apostle came to converse with him, and to help him on his road, and he took his satchel of books at Moin-tire-an-áis, and it was he that pleaded for him to the school of Cluain-mac-Nois, and the prologue or preface which is before that prayer states that this Colga was a saint, was a priest, and was a scribe of the saints of Erin, etc. And there is a Saint Colga, with his pedigree, among the race of Dathi, son of Fiachra, son of Eochaidh Muidhmhedhoin, and he may perhaps be this Colga".
[1] Dr. Todd, one of the learned editors, here adds a note: "Duinechda. The later hand inserts here: Marian. vocat. Cαolcu, Marianus O'Gorman calls him Cαolchu". But in the Brussels MS. of M. O'Gorman, as copied by Mr. O'Curry, the name is written Colchu.
[2] That is the Besom or Broom of Devotion. See Colgan, Acta SS. p. 378.
Through the gracious permission of their Lordships the Board of the Catholic University, who have placed at our disposal the manuscripts belonging to the late lamented Mr. O'Curry, now in possession of the University, we are enabled to give our readers this interesting and valuable document. In doing so we do not pretend to enter on a critical or philological examination of it. We shall confine ourselves to some remarks on those points which seem most interesting to ecclesiastics.
Speaking of this document, the learned Professor says: "This prayer is divided into two parts. The first consists of twenty-eight petitions or paragraphs, each paragraph beseeching the mercy and forgiveness of Jesus through the intercession of some class of the holy men of the Old and New Testament, who are referred to in the paragraph, or represented by the names of one or more of the most distinguished of them. The first part begins thus:—'I beseech the intercession with Thee, O Holy Jesus! of thy four Evangelists who wrote thy Gospel, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John'. The second part consists of seventeen petitions to the Lord Jesus, apparently offered at Mass time, beseeching Him to accept the sacrifice then made for all Christian Churches, for the sake of the Merciful Father, from whom He descended upon the Earth, for the sake of His Divinity, which the Father had overshadowed, in order that it might unite with His humanity, for the sake of the Immaculate body from which He was formed in the womb of the Virgin. The second prayer begins thus: 'O Holy Jesus! O Beautiful Friend!' etc., etc."
The prayer is found in the Leabhar Buidhe Lecain (or Yellow Book of Lecain), in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, (MS. H. 2. 16, T.C.D., col. 336).
The Yellow Book of Lecain is a volume consisting at present (notwithstanding many losses) of 500 pages of large quarto vellum; and with the exception of a few small tracts in somewhat later hands, is all finely written by Donnoch and Gilla Isa Mac Firbis, in the year 1390. It would appear to have been, in its original form, a collection of ancient historical pieces, civil and ecclesiastical, in prose and verse. O'Curry enumerates these pieces at page 191 of his work on the MS. Materials of Irish history.
Oratio Colgani sancti[3] (Ua Duinechda, ob. A.D. 789). Sapientis et Prespiteri et Scripæ omnium Sanctorum incipit qui cunque hanc orationem cantaverit veram penitentiam et indulgentiam peccatorum habebit et alias multa gratias, id est, Ateoch fuit a Isa naemh do cheithre suiscela, etc.